title: Blood culture accuracy: discards from central venous catheters in pediatric oncology patients in the emergency department.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lack of specific guidelines regarding collection of blood for culture from central venous catheters (CVCs) has led to inconsistencies in policies among hospitals. Currently, no specific professional or regulatory recommendations exist in relation to using, reinfusing, or discarding blood drawn from CVCs before drawing blood for a culture. Repeated wasting of blood may harm immunocompromised pediatric oncology patients. The purpose of this comparative study was to determine whether differences exist between blood cultures obtained from the first 5 mL of blood drawn from a CVC line when compared with the second 5 mL drawn.
  
  
  METHODS
  During 2009-2011, 62 pediatric oncology patients with CVCs and orders for blood cultures to determine potential sepsis were enrolled during ED visits. Trained study nurses aseptically drew blood and injected the normally discarded first 5 mL and the second specimen (usual care) into separate culture bottles. Specimens were processed in the microbiology laboratory per hospital policy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Positive cultures were evaluated to assess agreement between specimen results and to determine that the identified pathogen was not a contaminant. Out of 186 blood culture pairs, 4.8% demonstrated positive results. In all positive-positive matches, the normal discard specimen contained the same organism as the usual care specimen. In 4 matches, the normally discarded specimen demonstrated notably earlier time to positivity (4 to 31 hours) compared with the usual care specimen, which resulted in earlier initiation of definitive antibiotics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings support the accuracy of the specimen that is normally discarded and suggest the need to reconsider its use for blood culture testing.
authors.affiliation: Fullerton and Orange, CA. Electronic address: beth.winokur@stjoe.org.
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Winokur
authors.affiliation: Fullerton and Orange, CA.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pai
authors.affiliation: Fullerton and Orange, CA.
authors.forename: Dana N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Rutledge
authors.affiliation: Fullerton and Orange, CA.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vogel
authors.affiliation: Fullerton and Orange, CA.
authors.forename: Sadeeka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al-Majid
authors.affiliation: Fullerton and Orange, CA.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.affiliation: Fullerton and Orange, CA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sheikewitz
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D062905:Central Venous Catheters; D002648:Child; D016529:Emergency Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods; D018962:Phlebotomy / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018805:Sepsis / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications
keywords: Blood culture; Blood discards; Central venous catheter (CVC); Oncology; Research